The welfare performance of low-carbon city practice: An innovative tool for assessing urban sustainable development

IF 6.5 1区经济学 Q1 DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Habitat International Pub Date : 2025-02-28 DOI:10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103348

Xiaoyun Du , Chenyang Ma , Guangyu Cheng , Xiaoxuan Wei

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Extreme climate change is challenging the sustainable development of human beings. The practice of low-carbon cities is an urgent mission worldwide. While previous studies evaluate low-carbon cities from either an input or output perspective, lacking of evaluation based on welfare perspective. This study introduces an innovative tool, the Welfare Performance of Low-Carbon City Practice (WPLCC), to assess urban sustainable development performance. The Super-SBM method is employed as the measurement model. An empirical study of 256 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2020 reveals the spatial-temporal evolution of WPLCC. The findings indicate that: (1) there is an imbalance in WPLCC in China, with the ecological welfare transformation stage significantly outperforming the production transformation stage. (2) Spatially, the overall WPLCC in China shows a circular distribution pattern, exhibiting poor performance in central areas and better performance in surrounding regions. (3) WPLCC performances display significant regional heterogeneity; for example, four municipalities excel in both production and welfare transformation stages. (4) Tailored strategies should be implemented based on performance types and low-carbon process while maintaining policy flexibility. The developed evaluation tool provides a novel perspective for LCC assessment, and empirical findings can offer valuable insights for formulating effective strategies to achieve urban sustainable development goals.

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来源期刊

Habitat International Multiple-

CiteScore

10.50

自引率

10.30%

发文量

151

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： Habitat International is dedicated to the study of urban and rural human settlements: their planning, design, production and management. Its main focus is on urbanisation in its broadest sense in the developing world. However, increasingly the interrelationships and linkages between cities and towns in the developing and developed worlds are becoming apparent and solutions to the problems that result are urgently required. The economic, social, technological and political systems of the world are intertwined and changes in one region almost always affect other regions.